[Assam] Comment on ' India Woos Burma with Weapons for Gas '

[AssamWatch at aol.com]

Dear  Irrawaddy.org, 
I am submitting the  following comment for publication after reading the 
report on the subject line.   
Kindly advise me if  you decide to publish my comment. 
Many  thanks. 
Yours  sincerely, 
Dr. M.  Hazarika 
Co-Ordinator   
Assam Watch  (UK)   
My comment is as  follows: 
While appreciating the  military and economic considerations the Myanmar 
(Burmese) authorities  surely need the put 
Myanmar(Burma) first before anything else, but, I would like to  express a 
word of caution to the authorities there in making friendship with India.  
It is quite evident to any  watcher of the region how India has annexed the  
independent Kingdom of Sikkim and trying  to legitimise the disputed region of 
North East Frontier Agency of the British  period as an Indian province 
called Arunchal Pradesh. India’s hegemony over the Kingdom of Bhutan is  well 
known.  
What is unfolding in respect  of Nepal in the recent years  mirrors largely 
what took place in the  concluding years of Sikkim as an independent nation 
under the Ghyalmo. Now  that India has almost ‘bagged Nepal’, analysts should be 
careful about the intentions India harbours in her ‘look east policy’.   
The British East India company stretched it’s  neck to scan the East South 
Asia region from Bengal  apparently  to expand commerce to South East Asia. If 
we  delve into the history of that period, the Burmese Kingdom of Ava  became 
involved with the Kingdom of Assam due to the  internal squabble amongst 
competing claims to the throne of Assam. Due to the error of judgement on the part 
of the  Ava officers in command,  misunderstanding amongst the citizens of 
Assam created confusion and the Burmese force was seen  as the invading force. 
Inevitably the Assamese had to fight the Avans with a  view of expelling them 
from the land resulting in human suffering in a large  scale. However, when the 
British intention became quite clear later on a large  section of Assamese 
sided with the Avans rejecting the please from the British  to join them to expel 
the Burmese from Assam and fought against the British. This love-hate  
relationship between the Assamese and the Burmese is quite understandable.  Despite 
the geographical proximity  between the two lands, the cultural gap that 
existed for millennia became acute  after demise of Buddhism in Assam.  
On 24 February 1826, when the Treaty of Peace was signed at  Yandaboo between 
Ava and the British East India Company, it seems the welfare of  the Kingdom 
of Assam  and her people was the least concern of the  signing authorities of 
Ava. In a stroke of the pen the ancient  land of Pragjyotish, renamed  
Okhom/Oxom during the 600 years of Ahom Kingdom turned  into a Principality, placing 
the Kingdom on a platter for British take over. The  irony is, in the 
long-term plans of British expansionism Assam was a small fry, it is quite evident 
that plans  were in place to take over Burma next.  
I am not sure how much the  current authorities in Myanmar appreciates that  
the indigenous Assamese indeed  carries the feeling of being under  Indian 
occupation. I believe most Assamese secretly harbours a wish for the  
neighbouring powers to assist them to be free and to see a Sovereign Assam  again. Myanmar
’s proximity to Assam and historical relations and responsibilities to  her 
perhaps makes India doubly aware of the need to weigh the equation  heavily 
against Assam by hook or by crook. For India the tacit stance is letting Assam go 
is not an option, so, it is evident what has been  done in the past sixty 
years is  a  methodical of annihilating the Nation of Assam with trickery and 
brute  force.   
The question here is, are the same  people who fought against the British 
East India Company to preserve the Kingdom  of Assam,  going to stand by and 
watch India slowly and surely erase the  Assamese identity in the guise of 
democracy and turn this land into a truly  North-East India?  
Dr. M.  Hazarika 
Assam Watch (UK), A non-profit making Human  Rights Organisation. 
30 December  2006 
assamwatch at aol.com 
My comment is related to the following  article on your site: 
India  Woos Burma  with Weapons for Gas
By  Aunt Lwin Oo
January  2007 
http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6535&z=102

 (javascript:openppl('ppl.sendarticle.asp?a=6535',0,0,360,240))  
(http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6535&print=yes&c=e) 
New Delhi’s eagerness to supply Burma with weapons  highlights new quid pro 
quo policies 
Increased  contacts between senior military chiefs on both sides of the 
Burma-India border,  involving Indian weapons sales, are believed by analysts to 
have two primary  objectives: to help flush out Burma-based Indian insurgents 
and to counter  growing Chinese influence in Naypyidaw. 
But the sale of  arms and related technical equipment is also likely to be 
linked to New  Delhi’s “Look East” economic policy, including  ambitions to buy 
huge quantities of Burma’s offshore gas in the Bay of  Bengal. If the gas bid—
against rivals China and Thailand—is successful, it will also involve 
building a  costly pipeline through rebel-infested areas of northwest Burma and 
northeast India. 
During a visit  to Burma in November, India’s Air Marshal S P Tyagi offered a 
multimillion  dollar sale of military hardware to Naypyidaw. The package 
includes helicopters,  technical upgrades of Burma’s Russian and Chinese-made 
fighter planes, naval  surveillance aircraft and radar manufactured by Bharat 
Heavy Electricals  Limited, of New  Delhi. 
Military sources  said the Burma junta has shown interest in acquiring  
Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-made helicopters. The air  marshal’s 
offer includes Indian-made advanced light helicopters useful for  combating 
insurgent groups and for rapid response military movements.   
The visit  of Gen Shwe Mann, the junta’s joint chief of staff, in December 
was expected to  expand the arms sales talks.  
Prior to  the air force chief’s visit, Indian army chief Gen J J Sing 
offered, during a  visit he made to Burma, to provide training in counterinsurgency 
campaigns for  Burmese special forces.  
Earlier in 2006,  Indian Navy chief admiral Arun Prakash also visited Burma 
to negotiate the sale of two British-made  BN-2 Islander maritime surveillance 
aircraft. This was followed by the sale of  an unspecified number of T-55 
tanks and 105mm light artillery guns.   
That deal was  confirmed by the Indian Army deputy chief, Lt-Gen S 
Pattabhiraman, to the Indian  magazine Force in September. “We have recommended and 
started giving them  [the Burmese military] 105mm field guns,” said Pattabhirama, 
adding that India had provided a few 75mm howitzers to Burma in the  past. 
Since 1993, New  Delhi has reversed its position on Burma’s military 
government.   
The Indian  states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal  
Pradesh, bordering or close to remote and inaccessible regions of Burma, have been 
plagued by insurgencies for  decades.  But an attack on a military post in 
Assam last July by the United National Liberation  Front, one of the oldest armed 
groups defying New  Delhi, seems to have strengthened the Indian  military’s 
resolve to deal with the rebels. 
However, it is  almost impossible for India to counter the insurgency along 
India’s northeastern border without effective military  cooperation from Burma. 
Last September,  a Burmese delegation led by Deputy Minister for Home Affairs 
Brig-Gen Phone Swe,  and Indian officials led by Home Secretary Vinod Kumar 
Duggal, held talks in New  Delhi to consider ways of securing their troubled 
border. The Indian delegation  reportedly submitted a list of 15 India-related 
insurgent bases they believe are  operating inside Burma.  
The Naypyidaw  regime has pledged to root out any insurgents who are 
troubling neighbors and  taking sanctuary on Burmese territory. However, the junta 
says poor access to  border areas due to lack of roads has hindered action. The 
junta has therefore  also sought road-building equipment and expertise from 
India. 
China’s influence in Burma—economically  and politically—is also viewed by 
analysts as a major reason for New  Delhi’s attempt to develop closer ties with 
the Burmese  regime. India is now Burma’s fourth largest trading partner—its 
 investment reached US $35.08 million last year.   
Now that India hopes to pipe natural gas from Burma through its unstable 
northeastern states,  including Mizoram and Assam, New  Delhi clearly feels the 
time has come to rid  itself of insurgents and cozy up to the Burmese  generals. 
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